Critique my trip plan

Just an FYI, we have never really needed fast pass for Barnstromer or Muppets. You might have to watch times on the App, but I feel like those fast passes could be used elsewhere.
 
I would try to push your garden grill adr to a lunch.. go back to the hotel to rest mid day.. then go back and enjoy the world showcase and the food and wine kiosks.. that way you wont be full from dinner!!
 
Hm. I was thinking we'd enjoy them earlier in the day, have dinner, and then go back? Does food and wine get really crazy in the evening? part of me wants to ditch the garden grill reservation entirely and switch to the biergarten or something.
 
Thinking about this further - we might cancel garden grill entirely. We booked that before the food and wine dates were announced. We should be able to find stuff to eat easily those days right, even without reservations? And if all else fails, we can order room service.

My husband says I'm over planning now:)
 
Thinking about this further - we might cancel garden grill entirely. We booked that before the food and wine dates were announced. We should be able to find stuff to eat easily those days right, even without reservations? And if all else fails, we can order room service.

My husband says I'm over planning now:)

We are going during the Festival of the Holidays... so we did not make any ADR's for Epcot because we plan on eating around the world!!!
there is food everywhere in Epcot- from snacks to CS.. i dont think an ADR is necessary unless there is somewhere very specific you want to eat.. like I said, you will be in Future world in the morning.. i personally would try to schedule a late breakfast/early lunch at GG if you want to keep it for the kids...Ive never done the GG breakfast.. but it gets RAVE reviews!! then I would go back to the hotel and get in a little rest...then head back in the late afternoon early evening for the world showcase and eat eat eat!!!! Epcot is a lot of walking.. so your body will thank you for the mid day break!!!
 
Depending on what you want to accomplish in HS, the Play and Dine breakfast could actually hurt you. You need to plan 60-90 minutes for a character meal. People are normally let into the main drag about 20-30 minutes prior to opening and held there until rope drop. You will end up behind everyone waiting on the main drag to get to everything Toy Story and Star Wars related (except for Star Tours), as well as TOT and RnRC. If your only reason of keeping Play and Dine is to get ahead of the crowds, then I would cancel it. Also I agree with everyone else who said to switch your Muppets FP to something else. Muppets tends to be a walk in. The only wait I have had is in the pre-show area. You are much better off picking another show (Indiana, Frozen, or Beauty) or getting a FP to TOT or RnRC for your older son.
 


I don't think ToT or RnRC are options for my eldest kid. I think space mountain is pushing it - but my husband has gotten him all excited for it.

I've updated to the Indiana Jones show.

I'm reading mixed things about the early breakfast and getting in line early. Does the breakfast really take 60-90 minutes if you don't care to meet all the characters?
 
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Sigh... I switched the slinky dog dash to an earlier midway mania partially because I thought my youngest was too short and partially because a coaster right after dinner seems to be asking for trouble. Now he’s shot up an inch and is totally tall enough. Although I suppose the dinner thing still holds true.
 
Time for trip #2. This was supposed to happen this past august... but you know, pandemics and all have a way of ruining plans.

Speaking of which. Originally we were booked for Sunday->Sunday. Now we're Friday Aug 20 -> Friday Aug 27th which means we'll be there over the weekend for the first few days. (Our friends wedding now falls on the 28th so we would like to get back, hopefully quarantine rules are lifted by then)


Boys will be 6 and 9 (almost 10) a the time of the trip. The eldest has already ridden all the disney coasters and loved them except for animal kingdom which we didn't go to last time. Youngest and I do not like coasters except for very tame ones. (Luckily my husband will ride them with my eldest)

We're staying at the Poly which hopefully should have its renovations finished by then.

I'm thinking:

Friday: Flight lands at MCO at 5:20pm - so basically dinner and the pool if we're lucky
Saturday: Animal Kingdom
Sunday: Magic Kingdom
Monday: Pool Day or Universal / Partial Magic Kingdom day?
Tuesday: Pool Day or Universal
Wednesday: Hollywood Studios
Thursday: Epcot
Friday: Pool Day and flight departs at 5pm

Thoughts? I have 1 more day of park tickets I need to put somewhere. I"m thinking Monday maybe should be an extra magic kingdom day?
 
Time for trip #2. This was supposed to happen this past august... but you know, pandemics and all have a way of ruining plans.

Speaking of which. Originally we were booked for Sunday->Sunday. Now we're Friday Aug 20 -> Friday Aug 27th which means we'll be there over the weekend for the first few days. (Our friends wedding now falls on the 28th so we would like to get back, hopefully quarantine rules are lifted by then)


Boys will be 6 and 9 (almost 10) a the time of the trip. The eldest has already ridden all the disney coasters and loved them except for animal kingdom which we didn't go to last time. Youngest and I do not like coasters except for very tame ones. (Luckily my husband will ride them with my eldest)

We're staying at the Poly which hopefully should have its renovations finished by then.

I'm thinking:

Friday: Flight lands at MCO at 5:20pm - so basically dinner and the pool if we're lucky
Saturday: Animal Kingdom
Sunday: Magic Kingdom
Monday: Pool Day or Universal / Partial Magic Kingdom day?
Tuesday: Pool Day or Universal
Wednesday: Hollywood Studios
Thursday: Epcot
Friday: Pool Day and flight departs at 5pm

Thoughts? I have 1 more day of park tickets I need to put somewhere. I"m thinking Monday maybe should be an extra magic kingdom day?
Honestly I wouldn’t waste your money with universal because most of those rides are fast roller coasters or fast rides with screens. Or if you really want to go, go at the end of your trip and stay at a resort that comes with the express pass. id skip universal and do magic on sa, animal Sunday, magic monday, pool day Tuesday and Leave the rest the same. You could do a sleep in day for your second magic kingdom day.
 
Well that’s why we want to go to universal. The 9 year old will love the coasters and both boys love Harry Potter. But... I’m waiting to book that.
 
But also. We love the poly and I don’t want to have to pack and relocate all our stuff to universal.

I heard MK was not great on Saturdays? But I could swap that and the animal kingdom day. We’d like 2 MK days as it’s kinda big and it’s so easy to go back and forth from the Poly there.
 
Well that’s why we want to go to universal. The 9 year old will love the coasters and both boys love Harry Potter. But... I’m waiting to book that.
Then I’d add a day or two at the end of the trip.
 
But also. We love the poly and I don’t want to have to pack and relocate all our stuff to universal.

I heard MK was not great on Saturdays? But I could swap that and the animal kingdom day. We’d like 2 MK days as it’s kinda big and it’s so easy to go back and forth from the Poly there.
Who knows what is going to look in August? saturdays can be busy, but I think it’s worse in the fall with the Halloween parties. Personally if you want to do both, I’d add teo days and fly home Saturday or Sunday to have extra time. Plus you get the express pass if you stsy at universal and it will allow you to do more, just my opinion
 
We don’t have the extra time, and aren’t interested in staying at universal as I said.
 
If you are tight with time, would skip Universal and just do Disney. To see both Harry Potter sections you need park to park tickets so that’s about $ 150 or higher per person for tickets. What about doing one of the Disney waterparks?
 
I’m not sure why I have to argue this but we really want to go to universal, particularly for Harry Potter. That is not a question, and we’ve decided that the best way for us is to stay at the poly and not have to deal with transferring hotels. We will just get a Uber of book a car service. The days we are in Florida are fixed and we are flying in, no car.

I am aware how much universal tickets and their fast pass (whatever that’s called) cost and this is part of our trip budget. I do plan on waiting until later in the spring to book universal as I’d hate to have to go through the refund process again as I did last year:/

What is up in the air is which days we do things. It’s very hard to figure out this far in advance which days will be busier or not, particularly this year. I am worried I have all of the more tiring days towards the end of the trip.
 
Anyway thoughts? Any horrible mistakes? We'll be bringing an umbrella stroller for the 3 year old. Some of these reservation times are weird because I really want to do that thing (like slinky dog dash) but great time slots weren't available.

I would recommend enchanted tales with Belle if they have live actors/covid is over.

Why aren't you doing Animal Kingdom?
You can do the safari and also the Steam Locomotive to the petting zoo.

I would try to swap out Space Ship Earth fast pass to Frozen or something better. Space Ship Earth can have waittimes of 5 minutes so not worth a fast pass. Also it may be closed by August as they are supposed to renovate it.
 
Thank you! I think you critiqued our original trip plan! Maybe I shouldn’t have bumped my old thread for the new trip:)

but we do regret not going to animal kingdom last time, trying to fix that this trip!
 

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